With only six weeks or so 'til the end of the year, my wife and I have managed seven lifetime ticks in 2002 plus a first osprey at Rutland for my wife. Any non-twitchers beat that?
Here's our list:
Great Grey Shrike (Newark, Notts)
Woodlark, Redstart, Pied Flycatcher (photo soon on the gallery) and Nightjar at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire.
Ruff and Osprey (Rutland)
Grey Phalarope (Gailey Reservoir, Staffordshire)
I wonder what we would see if we became full-blown twitchers!
Need Great Grey Shrike myself,but the species is very rare in Ireland.Managed 12 ticks so far(not counting the poss.Elegant Tern in Co.Kerry,as the ID is still undecided),quite a poor autumn but a good spring.The ticks break down as follows:
Jan:Twite(found 3 birds in Galway city while there to get a bus to Ballyvaughan,where I saw......)
Black-throated Diver(6+at Ballyvaughan,where regular)
Feb:Hawfinch(rare here,a friend and I found a female in Co.Limerick,with up to 4 in the area subsequently,poss.breeding here?)
Mar:Alpine Swift(found 5 in Cork city centre,only 12-20 mins from my house!)
Apr:Great Spotted Cuckoo(the first twitchable bird since 1975;I was a few months old when that one turned up!)
White Stork(an unringed individual at Ballycotton)
May:Woodlark(only the 2nd since 1966 and 1st twitchable bird;happened to be going to Gt.Saltee ANYWAY when the news broke!)
Golden Oriole(at last!Female on Cape Clear)
Jul:Mandarin(tickable feral population Co.Down)
Oct:Forster's Tern(prob.returning bird Co.Kerry,dipped on 1 there last year)
Serin(1st twitchable bird,got great views)
Bean Goose(rare here,1 Taiga Bean with a Russian White-front)
Should get the Snow Geese before the year ends.....?
Nice one! I'm envious of the Hawfinch. Yet to clock that (although my wife has seen 'em!)
Just missed out the other week on the Great White Egret at Aldridge in the West Midlands. Maddening as the spot where it was seen is a favourite haunt of ours and I'd driven past on the day before it was reported! By the time I got there, the bird had flown.
I saw my first Chough in the Knockmealldown mountains when I was a lad on a family holiday in Ireland. to my shame, I've yet to make a return visit . . . your list might just spur me to remedy that!
Hopefully we'll get the Crossbills at Cannock Chase this winter. There's already been reports of flocks of up to 80 birds. It's also a good place for Gr Grey Shrikes and (supposedly) Goshawks, but we've been unlucky to date.
Cheers